Where does your identity begin <> end?
Join CounterPulse for a double bill installation showcase featuring works by our Combustible 2021 residency artists.
Tune into the Livestream: twitch.tv/counterpulsesf
Combustible is CounterPulse’s highly-acclaimed dance/technology residency that carves a place to experiment on the edge of what is known. Join us this April for two immersive, internationally-devised and intermedia dance/installation works that alter perceptions through a dystopian machinescape and mediated interactivity.
Human/ID by StratoFyzika is an immersive media installation that considers the essence of identity and the body as our lives are mediated by screens. Created by Berlin-based interdisciplinary performance collective StratoFyzika, in collaboration with local artists Daria Kaufman and Ian Heisters, Human/ID is inspired by the personal, political, and social implications of synthetic media, specifically Deepfake, which uses AI to manipulate media and create alternate “truths.”
Human/ID dives into the uncanny valleys that form at the edges of new human mapping technologies, where human beings are rendered and translated through code. What is lost or gained in these liminal, digital spaces? What strange new perspectives do they offer of self, body, and other?
Pictured: Hen Lovely Bird in StratoFyzika’s THÆTA. Photo by Dario Lagana
Next, enter a speculative science fiction allegory in are:era by Psueda, and examine the complexity and multiplicity of our shifting identities as they loop and reflect back to us endlessly. What are the origins and futures of those born into a cyber age, living their lives through a screen, as well as the implications of our ever growing techno-voyeurism?
Directed by drag performance artist, Pseuda, and choreographed by Kim Ip, in collaboration with interactive multimedia artist, Taurin Barerra, are:era drops its audience into a microcosm of a dystopian machinescape. A technological apparatus in which a performer is confined to a panopticon of cameras and monitors. In this space, organic movement is but an echo of the past, remembered through the flicker of screens. Will our protagonist assert their will and wildness through the barrage of data and images? Or find themselves a mimic, bound to the same patterns ad infinitum. What channels are we tuned into? Who is watching us, or who do we think is watching us? What effect does this have on the moves we think we are consciously making?
Pseuda at Pro Arts Gallery. Photo by Becca Reilly
Please join us for these special experiments
Wed-Sun, Apr 14-18, 2021
Video Installations at CounterPulse Wed-Sun, 12-8pm PDT
Livestream and Q&A with Tiare Ribeaux on Fri, Apr 16, 5pm PDT
Thursday is Pay-what-you-can day to see the installation
You are welcome to reserve a $0.00 ticket and contactless pay-what-you-can at the door
COVID-19 Protocols
- Please complete this COVID-19 Waiver and be sure that you are not feeling sick before coming to CounterPulse.
- A docent will ask to take your temperature before entering the building.
- All people will be expected to wear a mask or face covering at all times when inside the building.
- Hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes will be available for use.
- Only one pod will be admitted into each installation room at one time.
The Combustible Residency was launched with seed funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, as part of ARC which is made possible by support the Ken Hempel Fund for the Arts, Facebook, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Emmet R. Quady Foundation, and CounterPulse members.